That race felt like the old days

[FTHurley]

For the last few years, the 500 has felt like a long sprint race to me. Sure, there might be a twist along the way, but by and large the race played out like a longer version of a race at Milwaukee, with a very small group of front-runners controlling the race and deciding it among themselves, often based on when a caution fell.

Yesterday felt different. As a kid, back when a 500-miler felt impossibly long, the race played out in stages. Someone would be out front early, and then they'd fade and someone else would be in charge leading up to halfway. There would be pit mistakes, there would be strategy decisions, and there would be mechanical failures. It felt a lot more like that than it has in years.

Up until the end, I had no idea who was going to win, but not in a Daytona/Talladega way where the 16th place car could time the draft and win. Clearly the winner was going to come from a group of a half-dozen cars that were strong at the end, but those strong cars weren't necessarily the cars you would have thought at the start of the race would be the contenders at the end. We saw a story play out in multiple acts that brought us to a finale where characters we thought would be supporting cast turned out to be the leads. Nobody picked Sato to be there on lap 200. I sure as hell didn't. Everybody picked Helio to be there. He was mid-pack by then.

And here's the best part: this car has been racy on a road course, on several street courses, and on an oval. They did it. They actually did it. I'm excited for Belle Isle! Yes, you read that correctly! As tough a circuit as that is, given what we've seen so far, there's every chance it's going to be an entertaining race with some passing. And then we go to Texas, to see what this car does on the banked speedway. If you're not excited for the next two weeks of IndyCar racing, well, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe the sport just isn't for you.

Well done to Randy, ICONIC, and IndyCar as a whole. Well done to Dario, to Dixon, and yes, to Sato. Say what you want, but to paraphrase Little Al, apparently Taku DOES know what Indy means, and so does Dario. Did he pinch Sato there? Sure. Because it's the Indianapolis 500, dammit! You do whatever it takes to win that race!

God help me, I LOVE IT!

[Z28]

It was like some races of the past 32 I've been to. Some had early speed some were back and as the track and conditions changed some adjusted to them better or more often and moved up. The long periods of green flag racing was such a pleasure to watch, there were different pit strategies and not a case of everyone racing, pitting during a caution and going back out the same way they came in basically. In person you could try to keep track of who pitted when and how far they could go in comparison to someone else.

Hildebrand and Kimball were about even at the start of a run but JR was able to make up ground near the end of a fuel run only to lose it back during the stop. The lack of yellows meant neither could short fuel on a stop to get track position to move up because without a hint that a yellow would come out before they needed to stop they would only have to pit sooner under green.

The car seems to be capable of being set up and adjusted and that gives the better teams a chance to get their driver an edge. That kind of thing created some separation of the field but not many were out to lunch slow. I think with the 2013 aero kits you might see even more separation when different kits with different teams create more variables in who gets it right for a given run. It would be a dream that you would see one kit with low drag be faster down the straight and another one be higher downforce and faster in the corners.

If they can keep multiple manufacturers and aero kit makers it COULD help the smaller teams. The big Chevy and Honda teams will likely use their kits. If there are independently made kits and the basic Dallara that potentially could provide additional combinations. The smaller teams are usually last pick of an engine manufacturer but maybe the small teams could take a chance and make a unique pairing of engine and aero and find something.

You just hope there's a way to build more variety and keep the racing exciting and unpredictable.

[skypigeon]

For the last few years, the 500 has felt like a long sprint race to me...

I'm snipping this because one of my best friends, a 500 fan since childhood in Mooresville--the one southwest of Indianapolis, not the North Carolina one--had the same sentiment three years ago. It disillusioned him enough that his whole attitude towards the sport went south. The thing that made Indy fun, unique, one-of-a-kind, was gone; and if that was gone, what was there to keep him going to see it? Nothing. He gave up his tickets--his new family required all of his time anyway--and decided to let go of the last part of his childhood. Up until this year, talking to him about the 500 was a depressing thing.

But now he's showing interest in the 500 again. Part of it is simply the cars. He told me they reminded him of "the Can-Am cars of our youth." The subliminal trigger... and after yesterday's race, he's probably reverted to nine years old again. Which I'm sure his son of the same age is enjoying tremendously.

At its core, at its essence, people become fans of something because that something is FUN. It's only later when the initial fun impulse wears off that we start to care about the other stuff.

That race yesterday was FUN. I'll admit I was rooting for a different outcome, but the journey there was a blast. Not even ABC could ruin it and that's saying something. Where it begins, is FUN.

[Davydd]

Being an ex-Target employee at Target Headquarters and getting intimately enmeshed in Target racing over the years the outcome was obviously perfect for me. I still root for them out of loyalty though I have no further ties. It was the cars. I thought they were great and competitive compared to recent years. They also proved to be more durable. I just have a lot of respect for all the drivers that I can't say I have a one single favorite. Sam Hornish jr. might have been the last driver I had a smidgen of favoritism over others when it came down to the end. Of course I go back to those golden years when Jimmy Clark's little buzzing green cigar would pass everyone in the turns and then the roaring Novi would come screaming past on the straightaway. Those were interesting days when there was something new every year and always "a new track record!"